EMILY SANSON-REJOUIS and ALYANHA: Nelson woman Emily Sanson-Rejouis lost her husband Emmanuel and two of her young daughters, Kofi Jade and Kenzie, in the Haiti earthquake. Emmanuel Rejouis was looking after the three children at the Karibe Hotel, which collapsed, in the capital Port-au-Prince. Two-year-old Alyahna was rescued from the rubble of the hotel.

TAIKA WAITITI: The Kiwi filmmaker's movie Boy premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January. Boy was one of 14 films selected from 1022 international submissions for the festival's World Cinema Dramatic Competition. The film was a hit with New Zealand audiences too, and saw Poi E by the Patea Maori Club rocket up the charts, 26 years after it was first released.

VANESSA PICKERING: The 27-year-old New Brighton mother disappeared from her home in February. Her body was found at Godley Heads on Christchurch's Port Hills on February 11. Malcolm Chaston was charged with her murder.

ADAM HALL: New Zealand paralympic skier Adam Hall was left "wordless" after recovering from a fall to win gold in the standup slalom at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympic Games. Hall blitzed the field, 2.13 seconds faster than the next competitor. Sadly, Hall's mother Gayle, was killed in a car crash near Dunedin in April.

BRETT MCGREGOR: McGregor, a Christchurch principal, won the final of the popular TVNZ series Masterchef in April. It feels really brilliant. It's been an absolutely turbulent time ... I can't believe it,'' an emotional McGregor said.

EMMA CAMPBELL: Campbell, 29, was last seen at a petrol station in the city early on May 1. Her car was found abandoned on the Port Hills a couple of hours later. Extensive searches in the area failed to turn up any clues.

RICKY: Natureland Zoo's special-needs capuchin monkey celebrated his 17th birthday in April, but died a few week's later of a suspected heart attack.

NAYAN WOODS: Nayan was walking home from Eastgate Shopping Centre with his mother, Emma, and brother, Jacob, 6, when a car driven by a 17-year-old hit them from behind about 5pm on May 21. Nayan died at the scene. The car's driver, Ashley Austin, was sentenced to six months' community detention and 200 hours' community work.

ALL WHITES: The All Whites were the toast of the nation at the Football World Cup, drawing with Slovakia, Italy and Paraguay. The team's results weren't enough to see them through to the next round, but players returned home as heroes.

ALLAN HUBBARD: The businessman and philanthropist was placed under statutory management by the Government in June along with his wife, Jean, their company Aorangi Securities and Hubbard Managed Funds, and seven charitable trusts.

TONY HAYWARD: The chief executive of BP oil faced intense scrutiny over his response to the spill in the Gulf of Mexico that leaked oil into the environment for three months. It was the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.

ANDY HADEN: The former All Black, was axed from his role as ambassador for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in July after saying that women who target sportsmen "do so at their peril". The comments sparked outrage with Rape Crisis, which said they were inappropriate and sexist. In May, Haden hit the headlines for claiming the Canterbury Crusaders rugby club had race-based player selection policies - a claim strongly refuted by the CRFU.

BRUCE LAMB and GAGE: Senior Constable Bruce Lamb was shot through the face while carrying out a routine police call to a house in Phillipstown in July. His police dog, Gage, was shot dead during the incident. Lamb said afterwards that Gage was the "best dog I've seen" in his years as a handler.

TIM O'DONNELL: Lieutenant Tim O'Donnell was killed in an attack on his patrol in Afghanistan in August. O'Donnell had previously been honoured for his valour during a skirmish in East Timor.

NORM FITT and DEE JORDAN: Dee Jordan and Norm Fitt, pictured in 2006, were killed when a driver being pursued by police crashed into their car in August. Phillip Bruce Ray Bannan, 22, was charged with manslaughter.

JO NICHOLLS-PARKER: The Christchurch mayoress Jo Nicholls-Parker came under fire ahead of the election for saying it was "perfectly legit to take some perks" such as coffee and muffins because she worked fulltime for the city for free.

GAIL SHERIFF: Christchurch city councillor Gail Sheriff quit in August, ahead of the election, citing "harassment'' over her controversial ratepayer-funded trip to study sandcastles in California.

PAUL HENRY: Love him or hate him, Henry was the most talked about television presenter this year. After accepting the People's Choice award at the Qantas Film and TV Awards in September, Henry came under fire for comments made on TVNZ's Breakfast show and resigned amid the controversy a month later.

BOB PARKER: 2010 was a turbulent year for the mayor of Christchurch. Despite criticism and poor poll results early on in his campaign, Parker led the city through the Canterbury quake disaster and was re-elected to the top job in October.

JULIA GILLARD: Gillard said she was "very honoured" to become Australia's first female prime minister after Kevin Rudd stood down as Labor leader at a caucus meeting in June. After a fiercely close race in October's election, Gillard managed to beat opposition leader Tony Abbott.

DAKOTA BIDDLE: She may not have won the title of New Zealand's Next Top Model, but the Christchurch model enthralled audiences with her quirky behaviour and ill-thought out comments. Biddle is already looking to the future, saying, "I'm going to sign myself up for a real estate agent course and maybe in the future dabble in design.''

MARY MCKILLOP: Mary Helen MacKillop was an Australian Roman Catholic nun who, together with Father Julian Tenison Woods, founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and a number of schools and welfare institutions throughout Australasia with an emphasis on education for the poor, particularly in country areas. She died in 1909. In October 2010 she became the first Australian to be canonised.

SONNY BILL WILLIAMS: When the rugby league convert ran out on the field for the ITM Cup, he quickly silenced critics and settled into the Canterbury backline. His ability to offload the ball didn't go unnoticed by All Black selectors and Williams' dreams of playing in the black jersey were soon realised.

MONKEY KING and RICKY MAY: Driver Ricky May and Monkey King had the crowd roaring as they defended their New Zealand Trotting Cup crown and took their stake earnings past the $3 million mark at Addington in Christchurch on Cup Day this year.

SILVER FERNS: New Zealanders were elated then the Kiwis beat Australia 66-64 in extra time during the Commonwealth Games final against Australia. They went on to beat England in the final of the World Netball Series in November.

PETER WHITTALL: The Pike River Coal chief executive became the face of the mine explosion which claimed 29 lives. His calm, compassionate manner and his ability to break down the mine industry jargon won him the support of the New Zealand public.

TONY KOKSHOORN: The Pike River mining disaster saddled the people of the West Coast first with the most agonising wait imaginable. Few had to bear this so publicly and so constantly as Grey District mayor Tony Kokshoorn.

KATE MIDDLETON: In November, Prince William offered Kate Middleton his mother's engagement ring and announced they would marry in London's Westminster Abbey in 2011.

LESLIE NIELSEN: The Canadian comic actor and star of a string of madcap spoof movies, including Airplane! and The Naked Gun, died of complications from pneumonia in Florida in November.